Every day, funeral director Caitlin Doughty receives dozens of questions about death. What would happen to an astronaut’s body if it were pushed out of a space shuttle? Do people poop when they die? Can Grandma have a Viking funeral?

In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Doughty blends her mortician’s knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to thirty-five distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. In her inimitable voice, Doughty details lore and science of what happens to, and inside, our bodies after we die. Why do corpses groan? What causes bodies to turn colors during decomposition? And why do hair and nails appear longer after death? Readers will learn the best soil for mummifying your body, whether you can preserve your best friend’s skull as a keepsake, and what happens when you die on a plane. Beautifully illustrated by Dianné Ruz, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? shows us that death is science and art, and only by asking questions can we begin to embrace it.

Hello Girls- Brittany Cavallaro & Emily Henry

Best friends are forged by fire. For Winona Olsen and Lucille Pryce, that fire happened the night they met outside the police station—both deciding whether to turn their families in.

Winona has been starving for life in the seemingly perfect home that she shares with her seemingly perfect father, celebrity weatherman Stormy Olsen. No one knows that he locks the pantry door to control her eating and leaves bruises where no one can see them.

Lucille has been suffocating beneath the needs of her mother and her drug-dealing brother, wondering if there’s more out there for her than disappearing waitress tips and generations of barely getting by.

One harrowing night, Winona and Lucille realize they can’t wait until graduation to start their new lives. They need out. Now. All they need is three grand, fast. And really, a stolen convertible to take them from Michigan to Las Vegas can’t hurt.

The Year They Fell- David Kreizman

When a horrible tragedy unites five very different high school seniors, they discover the worst moment of your life can help determine who you really are in the powerful YA novel, The Year They Fell.

Josie, Jack, Archie, Harrison, and Dayana were inseparable as preschoolers. But that was before high school, before parties and football and getting into the right college. Now, as senior year approaches, they’re basically strangers to each other.

Until they’re pulled back together when their parents die in a plane crash. These former friends are suddenly on their own. And they’re the only people who can really understand how that feels.

To survive, the group must face the issues that drove them apart, reveal secrets they’ve kept since childhood, and discover who they’re meant to be. And in the face of public scrutiny, they’ll confront mysteries their parents left behind—betrayals that threaten to break the friendships apart again.

A new family is forged in this heartbreaking, funny, and surprising book from award-winning storyteller David Kreizman. It’s a deeply felt, complex journey into adulthood, exploring issues of grief, sexual assault, racism, and trauma.

Fie abides by one rule: look after your own. Her Crow caste of undertakers and mercy-killers takes more abuse than coin, but when they’re called to collect royal dead, she’s hoping they’ll find the payout of a lifetime.

A fugitive prince

When Crown Prince Jasimir turns out to have faked his death, Fie’s ready to cut her losses—and perhaps his throat. But he offers a wager that she can’t refuse: protect him from a ruthless queen, and he’ll protect the Crows when he reigns.

A too-cunning bodyguard

Hawk warrior Tavin has always put Jas’s life before his, magically assuming the prince’s appearance and shadowing his every step. But what happens when Tavin begins to want something to call his own?

There are so many amazing books out there and I know that as much as we may try, we can’t read them all.
This feature is to honor those books that we thought sounded good, but never actually got around to reading them.

This week I’m going with a book that I’ve had on my TBR for a few years now. I have an arc of this book and it’s just sitting in my book closet. I love Alice in Wonderland and I adore weird retellings. Maybe it fell down the rabbit hole…….

My pick this week is The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor.

Alyss of Wonderland?
When Alyss Heart, newly orphaned heir to the Wonderland throne, flees through the Pool of Tears to escape her murderous Aunt Redd, she finds herself lost and alone in Victorian London. Befriended by an aspiring author named Lewis Carrol, Alyss tells the violent, heartbreaking story of her young life. Alyss trusts this author to tell the truth so that someone, somewhere will find her and bring her home. But he gets the story all wrong. He even spells her name incorrectly!

Fortunately, Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan knows all too well the awful truth of Alyss’ story – and he’s searching every corner of our world to find the lost princess and return her to Wonderland, to battle Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.

The Looking Glass Wars unabashedly challenges our Wonderland assumptions of mad tea parties, grinning Cheshire cats, and a curious little blond girl to reveal an epic battle in the endless war for Imagination.

This week I’m going to give you a line from a book that I forgot that I received at ALA this year. Jennifer over at A Bella Fairy Tale recommended this to me and it sparked something in my brain to look at my arcs. And here this was in all its glory. I’m hoping to start reading that this weekend.

Happy Reading!

Five years after being kidnapped, Elian’s captor sends him into the mall–with a bomb strapped to his chest.

Across the mall is Maya, a girl whose crippling anxiety holds her prisoner in its own way.

Whether it’s chance or fate, Maya keeps Eli from ending them all. And now nothing is the same. Drawn together by their dark pasts, Maya and Eli know it takes only seconds for their entire worlds to change. But time will tell if meeting each other will change them for better or worse.

Rescued by Calvin McLoughlin from a would-be subway attacker, Holland Bakker pays the brilliant musician back by pulling some of her errand-girl strings and getting him an audition with a big-time musical director. When the tryout goes better than even Holland could have imagined, Calvin is set for a great entry into Broadway—until he admits his student visa has expired and he’s in the country illegally.

Holland impulsively offers to wed the Irishman to keep him in New York, her growing infatuation a secret only to him. As their relationship evolves from awkward roommates to besotted lovers, Calvin becomes the darling of Broadway. In the middle of the theatrics and the acting-not-acting, what will it take for Holland and Calvin to realize that they both stopped pretending a long time ago?

My Review:

Christina Lauren has this way of making my dark soul feel overjoyed. They can take any situation and turn it into something magnificent. This book officially has my heart for the best contemporary this year.

I’m sure we all had that crush where we did some unthinkable things to get their attention. Sometimes it can get a wee bit creepy. The way Holland tries to capture Calvin is way too sweet for words.

The main character, Holland is so selfless and lovable. You can’t help but love her and her upbeat attitude. There are a few times where you just want to shake some sense into her but she learns quickly from her mistakes. The confidence she exceeds is where we all want to be, even if our lives aren’t the most perfect.

Calvin looks like the bad boy guitarist but has a heart of gold. This is the male lead character we all look for in a swoon-worthy hero. And on the plus side, he has a gorgeous accent! (Flutters eyelashes)

Roomies is a flawless read. They truly captured the heart and soul of the characters and their dilemmas. This deserves only the highest of ratings and I’ll be forever bragging about this book.
This is the perfect book to read to bring yourself out of a funk and lift your mood.

“We aren’t alone, I say quietly, liking how the words fit around my lips. If this is the impossible universe, then I hope tonight was the good sort of impossible. I want to believe.”

As we all know, retellings usually disappoint me. They do the original no justice and I’m left wanting to kick the book into outer space, but this book right here changes everything. It took the original story a step further and added Con flare to the picture. It has all our nerd-girl hearts on overdrive.

I wasn’t expecting to feel a deep level relatability with this one, maybe a quick fangirl freakout but nothing to this magnitude. I might have felt goosebumps rise up my arms and a few tears fall on my precious arc copy.

From page one, you instantly connect with Elle and feel what she feels. The torment from her stepsisters and stepmom, the heartache from losing her parents at a young age, and the fandom she lives and breathes on.

The twist text communication between Elle and Darien was absolute genius on her part and I tip my hat to you. Everything seemed to fit into place perfectly and I wouldn’t change a thing.

If you want an emotional roller coaster of feels, secret texting, sabotage, and epic cons, then this story is for you. Hell, who am I kidding? Everyone should read this. This is not your typical retelling!

“I might not be there and you might not be here, but I’m glad to share the same sky with you. Maybe we should start looking up together.”